Aerodynamics of Egyptian Hail (Vaera)
Just before you break through the sound barrier, the cockpit shakes the most. -Chuck Yeager

US Air Force test pilot, Chuck Yeager, is credited as being the first person to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, in the Bell X-1. Many pilots before him died trying. It took test pilots and engineers many years to understand and overcome the many issues surrounding traveling faster than the speed of sound. Some scientists thought it was impossible, and that the aircraft would break apart from the extreme pressure and vibrations as they approached the sound barrier.
In the early days of the Cold War, the one critical element lacking in the development of nuclear missiles was known as “atmospheric reentry technology”. Scientists discovered that anything they sent into space or even the upper atmosphere would burn up on reentry. As such they needed to develop proper shielding technology to protect the “payload.”
Sonic booms and atmospheric reentry burnout were technological issues that were not even dreamed of until a few decades ago.
As such, it is outright incredible that Rabbi Ovadia Sforno (1475-1549) describes both phenomena in his commentary about half a millennium ago.
In Exodus 9:23-24 the Bible recounts:
“And Moses outstretched his staff to the heavens, and God gave sounds and hail, and fire descended earthward, and God rained down hail upon the land of Egypt. And there was hail and fire together in the hail, very heavy, the like of which was not in Egypt since it’s becoming a nation.”
Sforno comments on the “fire descended”:
“The flaming air descended to the earth with the force of the movement of the hail that pressed on it (the air) during its descent.”
Sforno basically and accurately described atmospheric reentry during the same period when Leonardo Da Vinci was just getting started with his water engine.
Sforno continues:
“In the force of the movement of the hail during its descent, the air was flamed and produced sound.”
He’s talking about sonic booms!
Imagine an ongoing downpour of burning hailstones accompanied by continuous sonic booms. It’s no wonder Pharaoh is frightened out of his wits and begs for the noise to stop before mentioning the hail.
The fact that Sforno was able to describe scientific concepts that we think of as exclusively from our modern era simply leaves me awestruck.
May plagues continue to hail down on our enemies, and may we be spared, and like our ancestors may we witness redemption.
Shabbat Shalom,
Ben-Tzion
Dedication
To the release of Emily Damari, Doron Steinbrecher and Romi Gonen from their hellish captivity.